From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
> Hi Mike:
> Share some details on "The First Family" please. Was it pressed in
> many plants because it was an unexpected hit, like sometimes
> happened with singles?

I don't want to give away all the secrets of the presentation, but yes
it was pressed in ten plants -- mentioned in Life magazine and confirmed
in the trade press -- because it was a mega-hit.  The inside story of
getting the pressings made while avoiding having any counterfeits or
pirates show up is quite exciting.

> How common was the stereo version vs. the mono? I find the mono
> version all over the place but the stereo tends to be more common
> in the NYC area, but that's a non-scientific "study," just my
> looking for copies when I'm in a record store.

It took me ten years (1973) to find my first stereo copy of Volume One
(I have six now), and they CAN be found cheap on ebay, as can Volume
Two. I never saw a stereo copy for sale at the time, and that was in the
NYC/NJ area, but it DID top the separate Billboard Stereo charts,
alternating with "My Son the Folk Singer" which is even harder to find
in stereo!  I didn't get my first stereo of that till about 10 years
ago.

> Someone should do a movie about Vaughn Meader and that album.
> Net-net it did not have a good effect on his life because of
> the way history went.  -- Tom Fine

As you know, Volume One was recorded in your father's studio, but Volume
Two was recorded at Columbia.  However just before the assassination,
Meader recorded "Have Some Nuts" for Verve, again in Fine Studios.  In
an article published BEFORE the assassination, Meader promoted the yet
unreleased album and said that he was moving away from the JFK gig.  He
was far more versatile and already disliked the typecasting, and was
stopping his JFK imitations. I will show the dated article for proof.

Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]  


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 12:00 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Two more extreme record collecting geeks


I have two albums I have collected dozens of copies of, but my purpose
is researching the pressing history of them. I did an article in
Goldmine about the Paul McCartney Melodiya album because all the idiot
collectors were going after "variations" in cover color printing and
placement of the star, but totally missing that the labels and covers
printed the pressing plant locations!! They noticed where the star was
located but didn't notice that a lot of the words on the labels were
different! A dealer supplied me about 25 copies for $3 each that were
classified by HIS differences, but I was able to completely turn around
how this album was collected -- and even found a few real variations the
Russian collectors had never seen, and are now illustrated in their book
and web site.

The other album will be part of my ARSC Conference presentation this
year, "The First Family". I have examples from all but one pressing
plant. Ironically I noticed just this morning that my Canadian copy had
gone missing, and after asking David Lennick what he had, I am buying
the Canadian copies of both volumes that had belonged to his father, a
member of the Wayne & Schuster troop and presenter of a CBC radio comedy
DJ show. So I am not just picking up every copy, only variations I need
to tell the history of the albums.

Mike Biel [log in to unmask]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Two more extreme record collecting geeks
From: Cary Ginell <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, February 18, 2013 5:40 pm
To: [log in to unmask]

I'd be more interested in the stories behind the different copies -
where they came from, where they were acquired, how they got in such
condition, who the inscriptions on the albums were about - but Chang
doesn't know or doesn't care about anything other than the serial
number. Too bad - this could have been an interesting project. Instead,
it's a "what is it?"

Cary Ginell

On Feb 18, 2013, at 2:33 PM, David Goren <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Personally, I don't think Chang is that hard to understand. It's an art project. Whether it's a 
> good one or not is your call. He regards the album as a cultural artifact and as a sort of blank 
> canvas that can degraded through the ravages of time, by the intervention of the owner or both. 
> I've run across people doing sound art doing similar experiments in degradation.
>
>
> On Feb 18, 2013, at 5:27 PM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>
>> Chang sounds like a real character. Can't say I understand his obsession, but it makes him happy 
>> so go figure.
>>
>> He plays the White Album every day and collects any copy he can get his hands on, no matter what 
>> the condition. I thought people like this existed only in coin collecting.
>>
>> Cary Ginell
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 1:46 PM, Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> A real bottom feeder,I feel sorry for this guy. 
>>> http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=502630 Rutherford Chang.Maybe you heard about 
>>> him. http://www.dustandgrooves.com/rutherford-chang-we-buy-white-albums/ Roger
>